Chai, Pakoda and Masonry Supervision

By: Amit Bhushan Date: 9th Feb.2018

There are some in the polity who would want to spread rumour that a discussion around Chai with some Pakodas on sidelines along with some Masonry Supervision is likely to propel some party to rally voters. Its' time that like the Hon'able Court, the Netas also realize that the aspirational population and its themes are changing and ‘Aaloo ka bhav' (rural India's expectation of vikas/jobs) is much more material from votes perspective. Every Netas knows the ‘state of the village which was adopted' with gusto to raise the media barometer and the commercial news media would have forgotten by the media now (to be fair some of them did report on digital payments and flow of trucks post-GST etc.), even though it continues to report ‘election mode of functioning'. There are also some dedicated Bhakts in the commercial news media to aggressively promote this line of thinking with Netas in all parties willing to propel themselves to limelight at the drop of a hat. Then we also have some media glorifying strictness i.e. strictness in Exam vigilance on students. Now, if is a wish that some of the news channels also cover the sideline story around how students are running helter-skelter to the tuition rackets run by the same teachers who should have been teaching them in schools instead. Some teachers are glorified for their strictness by the Netas who also claim fame on the basis to ‘strict supervision' with the media in cohort. Basically, when our polity fails to deliver on everyday basis, it creates an event which is sought to be glorified. Now this event can be entirely a ‘fog', meaning a mirth taken for and promoted as reality (like you know what) or this could be something ‘critical' but treated as ‘part of fun' (like education).

Basically, by nature media is friendlier towards events rather than regular affairs. This explains it coverage somewhat, even with the best of intentions (coming from ‘Game' this should be taken as a compliment, but it may be noted that coverage of rural issues remains minimal). Like the focus on under-privileged education in the Capital (and leaving areas which might be of much higher concern). Instead of exhorting the government to create and monitor metrics like ‘Class-lecture delivery' which can be per teacher, school, education zones and entire state; there seems tilt to report some exam results which are a derivative factor and easily can be easily manipulated. It would raise questions again if the commercial news media wants or is promoting such ‘manipulations' instead of ‘proper reporting'. In fact, it might be better that instead of deliberating loudly over some of the stupid issues, the senior Journos of the commercial news media hold some round table to identify metrics that would matter for the larger population (and this could be with some dissent notes as well from some of the participants) and these can then serve as guidelines for other journos for reporting over the matter. Such a guideline would have some degree of following and serve as a ready reckoner while those who don't want to follow and continue with propaganda or different vision could be easily understood by all others. The initial set of understanding could be around things like Education/skilling, Drinking and Irrigation water, water table, pollution etc. (it could be regards the factors http://www.managementparadise.com/article/9666/the-debate-on-constitution-amp-legalese ).

It should be noted that there are still no Sangthan which would like to work on non-contentious projects like Dwarka or Mahabalipuram i.e. either to raise them above sea-water level or put on some glass balloon cover over them so that people can ‘experience' history. However these Sangthan would try to steal limelight being showered by news channel who would want to mutually benefit from a ‘feeling' of hype and diverge from ‘real issues' over which they don't want to report along with ‘you know who'. The ‘sarki hui jameen' is something nearly all Netas have sensed though it tends to benefit ‘opposition' subject to ‘strong ground connect', and this being supported by the commercial news media along with interest of religious Netas, bureaucrats and other select authorities and political donors. Let's see the ‘Game' evolve…